Core Themes
'Los Angeles: No Angels '''is a game built to focus on three core themes - each ever closer to the character themselves. 1. Struggle Against Others: Conflict Fundamentally, Conflict mandates Choice, which leads to Change and creates Story. Conflict is good. Embrace conflict. Conflict is what gives characters goals to achieve, stakes to risk, things to do and something to talk about. Conflict is the central driving force at the heart of role-play on LA:NA. In conflict, something is always at stake - something is to be gained, and something is to be risked. This kind of dramatic conflict demands that action be taken, or that there be a meaningful consequence for inaction. Conflict requires that characters make choices, to act with purpose, to invest emotionally in what they're doing and engage others in the drama. When a Conflict has been resolved, something has changed in the world or between characters. The scope will vary; it may be strictly interpersonal or may have far-reaching effects beyond the imagination of any involved party. This constant change is what weaves personal stories into a tapestry that we're pleased to call our game. Conflict is what will give you stories to tell not just tonight, but in years to come. You may be apprehensive at this concept - players often fear conflict. They worry that IC conflict will become OOC conflict. They worry about risking the things which are valuable to their characters, that conflict will escalate beyond the point they're comfortable with and result in a series of consequences which result in their character going in directions they don't wish to play. They're concerned others will not be fair. They do not wish to reduce the amount of play they can get from their characters. They don't like to lose. We recognize that conflict can be stressful. It demands something from the player; engagement, action, willingness to lose with grace and win with humility, willingness to compromise. We also recognize that the more personal a conflict is - the more it impacts an individual - the more difficult it is to arrive at outcomes that're mutually enjoyable. This is why Los Angeles: No Angels has carefully structured conflict. Our systems aim to reward cooperation and are heavily invested in props to allow conflict to be about ''things, ''rather than merely bodily injury and who can beat up whom. ''Our game is deliberately a dynamic one - the wheel of fortune turns, characters pursue goals and change is a constant. 2. Struggle Against Nature: World of Darkness These are the stories of the cruel, isolated world that you inhabit and the challenges it poses. You are yourself a creature of myth - you feed on the blood of the living and the light of the sun itself rejects you and if ''you ''are real, then what ''else ''is out there? What do monsters have nightmares about? Of course, the supernatural is not the only thing to fear in the World of Darkness - the hearts of men are often darker and more twisted than those of beasts. A predator kills because it must feed, but what of the creature that kills for nothing more than the ''love ''of killing? 3. Struggle Against Yourself: Damnation Vampire: the Requiem is a game about the terror and tribulation of dealing with your own existence and what must be done to survive, and to proper in it. This is the root of the personal horror aspect of our game - if you are looking for eldritch abominations of unfathomable power and alien hatred you need only look in the mirror. It lurks behind the eyes, it shares your skin. And it vies with you for control. The Beast has demands - it desires food, it desires safety, it desires domination. It tempts with power, offered to better meet its will. If you do not accept, it will seize control from you. And either way, with every step you take its hold over you grows, your humanity slipping away. The beast can be fought, resisted, even exhausted. For a time. But not forever. One night, it will consume you - at best you can delay the inevitable. For you are truly damned. The nature of this theme calls upon players to abandon the dynamic of protagonist-and-obstacle more common in roleplaying games and adopt the role of storyteller, exploring the themes of damnation and struggle as both their own protagonist and antagonist.